Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Thing in Orange


She looked at the painting again. It was crazy, but there was something familiar about it, a sense of deja vu from her own childhood. Ethan had been so proud when he brought it home from art class but even then her enthusiasm was undercut by a barely palpable feeling of dread. Now here it was, up by the computer, while he played quietly downstairs with his trains.

It occurred to her then that she hadn't heard anything down there in quite a while. "Ethan?" she called out, but there was no answer. She went downstairs, the painting sitting by itself on her desk.

(art by Jack Arndt-Schreiber, age 6)